The Chance to Say Goodbye
by Saint Miroku
Summary: After finding a strange artifact, Inuyasha is able to briefly travel back in time to try and set right one of his greatest regrets. A short one shot celebrating my second anniversary of watching Inuyasha! Edit: I think I've managed to edit whatever weird error was going on with the formatting.


As the sun loomed high in the sky, Inuyasha couldn't help but feel impatient as Kaede looked the small blue gem over for the hundredth time. He had found the faintly glowing stone while picking his sword up off the ground during a rather intense fight with one of Naraku's demon's. No one else in the group was able to identify it, so he figured that Kaede might be able to identify the rock once they returned to the village. Unfortunately, she was taking way too long for his tastes.

"Could you hurry up Old Hag?" he asked, annoyed.

"Pipe down you, Mutt! It's not everyday that I'm told to look at weird things like this," she responded, inspecting the stone for a few more moments before continuing, "You say you found this during a fight with a demon?"

"Yeah, it was just lying there on the ground."

"Well then, I think you may have stumbled across a Time Stone."

"What's that?"

"According to legend, it's a mystical stone that, when combined with a gate to another world, it will allow any with demon's blood to briefly travel back to any point in the past they want before it's destroyed forever. Normally, I'd scold you for just picking up any random shiny thing that might be on the ground, but in this case, you did the right thing, there's no telling how much harm some random demon could've done with it."

"A gate to another world, you mean, like the well?" Inuyasha asked, intrigued.

"Yes, I believe the well would work with this stone," the old Priestess paused briefly before she looked Inuyasha straight in the eyes, her face somehow managing to take on a more serious expression than usual, "This stone is dangerous, even the smallest change in the past could have terrible consequences for all of us. If you ask me, you should use it as soon as possible to make sure that Naraku or some other demon doesn't get their hands on it and completely change the past. Just jump into the well while thinking of the time you want to return to and you'll be there for a few minutes, just don't change anything, keep it simple."

"Keep it simple..." Inuyasha said, thinking to himself.

"Yes, just go back and see something that doesn't exist anymore, like an old festival or some other celebration, nothing to big."

A faint smile crossed the half demon's face as he took the gem and spoke with an almost solemn tone, "Thanks for the info, I know exactly what to travel back for."

"Inuyasha, whatever you do, don't change the past!" Kaede warned, concerned about Inuyasha's decision.

"Relax you old Hag, I'm not going to change anything, it's just there's something I need to see one last time." With that, Inuyasha left the room, leaving Kaede anxious as to what he could be planning to do.

"That fool, I just hope he doesn't doom us all," she said, fearfully.

Upon reaching the edge of the well, Inuyasha took a deep breath before filling his mind with the time he wanted to revisit and jumping into the Sacred Well. As he fell, he was engulfed by a bright light, not unlike that which surrounded him while he normally traveled to Kagome's time, though this light pulsed with a deep blue light, similar to that of the stone he held in his hand. He closed his eyes, unable to take the flashes of light, and after a few more seconds, he felt cold stone against the soles of his feet.

Inuyasha opened his eyes, he saw that it was night and he found himself standing in an all too familiar courtyard. At the the end of the path in front of him, he could see light peeking out from a large screen door, the door to a room that he hadn't seen in over a hundred years. As he walked towards the light, a cool autumn breeze brushed against his cheeks, casing him to shiver a bit as he pressed onward. When he at last reached to door, he slowly opened it, and saw his mother, Izayoi sitting right in front of him. She reacted immediately to the door opening, and looked in her son's direction before shooting him a warm smile.

"Inuyasha, is that you?" she asked.

"Yes mom, it is," he said, trying to hold back tears.

"Welcome home," she said, smiling once again.

"H-how did you guess it was me?"

"Simple, I would always recognize my son's face, no matter how old he is,"

"And this doesn't confuse you at all?" he asked, closing the door behind him as he moved forward and sat down directly in front of her.

Izayoi laughed softly before continuing, "I may have in the past, but after I spent a lot of time with your father, I learned that anything is possible in this world." She looked Inuyasha over, noticing the sword at his side. "You have your father's sword, I see he must have given it to you."

"Ye-yeah, you could say that," he replied, remembering all the trouble he had to go through to get it.

"Well, I expected that, your father really does love you, even if he never shows it." With those words, Inuyasha could no longer hold back the tears that were forming in his eyes, and he lunged forward, tightly embracing his mother.

"I love you mom, I really do! I never said it enough, but I love you!" he said.

"Inuyasha," she replied, returning his embrace with some tears forming in her eyes as well.

"I've been really selfish, and I was never able to tell you just how much you mean to me!"

"It's alright Inuyasha, you're my son, and I'll always love you."

"Mom," the half demon said, loosening his embrace and looking at his mother through the tears in his eyes.

Izayoi reached up with one of her hands, and gently wiped away the tears from her sons eyes, "Come on now, this can't just be a sad meeting, you have to tell me something about what you've been doing."

"Well, I've been traveling around with some people, I guess you could call them friends."

"Friends? Well that's great, I'm so glad to hear that you've been able to make some friends. So, do you have a girlfriend?"

"Ah, yeah, I guess I do," Inuyasha said nervously as thoughts of Kagome filled his head.

"Well that's good to hear, I'm sure she's a very nice girl."

"Yeah you could say that," he replied, chuckling softly as the word 'sit' entered his mind.

"Here," his mother said, removing a necklace from around her neck and putting it into his right hand before continuing, "This was a necklace that your father gave to me when we first met, give it to your girlfriend, I'm sure she'll like it."

"Mom, are you sure?"

"Of course, I'd rather have you pass it on than see it go to waste," she said, another smile forming across her face. As that happened, Inuyasha felt the time stone in his other hand weaken before crumbling into dust. He knew that his time here was up.

"Mom, I have to go now, but I just want to say thank you, for everything," he said, tears again starting to form in his eyes.

"Of course, these years that I've spent with you have been the happiest of my life Inuyasha." Inuyasha felt a force slowly begin to push him up into the air, and he tried to hold onto his mother's hands as he slowly drifted upwards.

"Goodbye Mom, I'll always love you!" he said, tears streaming down his face as he was lifted up into a pulsing blue light.

"Goodbye Inuyasha, I love you too!" his mother replied, as tears ran down her face as well. With those words, Inuyasha was again consumed by the light, and he closed his eyes as he was carried away.

Soon, he felt grass against his back and opened his eyes to find himself right beside the well, with sun setting in the horizon. For a moment, he'd thought that perhaps he'd simply fallen asleep, until he felt the necklace in his right hand and the powdery remains of the Time Stone in his left. He opened his hand and allowed what remained of the gem to blow away in the evening breeze, before inspecting the necklace in his other hand. He saw that it contained eight small jade stones, carved into small rectangles that glimmered beautifully in the setting sun. He smiled to himself softly, finally realizing the love that his father felt for his mother. He'd do as she had said, and give it to Kagome when the time was right, but for now, he'd just have to hold on to it. With that thought, he heard a voice calling out in the distance and he again closed his fist tight around his mother's cherished memento.

"Inuyasha!" a woman's voice called out. As he looked towards the source of the noise, he saw his friends, Kagome, Sango, Miroku, Shippo, and Kirara all running towards him.

"Inuyasha, there you are, we've been looking all over for you," Kagome said, as they reached his position.

"What for, did something happen?" he asked.

"No, it's just, we haven't been back in the village for a while, so we thought we'd have a big dinner celebration to commemorate it," Miroku said, as the others shot him a warm look.

"Oh well let's go then!" Inuyasha said enthusiastically.

As they began walking back towards the village, Kagome noticed the object in Inuyasha's hand and asked, "Say, what's that?"

"It-it's nothing," Inuyasha said nervously, not wanting to have to explain his mother's gift just yet.

"Maybe it's something dirty," Shippo teased, peeking over Kagome's shoulder to look him in the eyes as he did.

"Shut up!" he replied, holding back the urge to smack the fox child upside the head.

As his friends laughed, he couldn't help but laugh along. Just as he'd told his mother, he was finally able to make some friends, and while they might bicker a lot, the bond they shared made it all worth while, and while he might not have been ready to tell Kagome how he felt right at that moment, he would find the right time eventually. He looked at all the smiling faces around him and felt a warmth in his heart as he knew that his mother could rest easy knowing that he was supported by such good friends.


End file.
